The only thing we’d achieved so far on this mission was to piss off thousands of hybrids.
“We can try to outrun the ones that are following us,” Lucy said. “We should get to the village before them, which will give us time to get to the harbor and get on the Zodiac before they arrive.
“But the ones on the vehicle are coming with us no matter how fast we go. We’ve got to get rid of them if we’re going to have a chance at the village. The zombies there will be enough for us to deal with. Throw in a half dozen hybrids and we’ll never make it to the Zodiac at all.”
Sam pointed at the two hybrids furiously pounding on the windscreen. “So how do we get rid of them, man?”
“We’re going to have to go out there and shoot them off,” Lucy said.
“Lucy, don’t be crazy,” I said. “This isn’t Mad Max. If you climb out there, you could be killed.”
She looked up at the ceiling where the hybrids were still trying to force their way inside. She looked scared but her blue eyes also held a flash of determination.
“Like Sam said,” she told me, “if you have a better plan, let’s hear it.”
12
Lucy and Tanya began loading fresh magazines into their M16s. I did the same for the Walther that I’d emptied earlier. I wasn’t happy with us risking our lives to get the hybrids off the Mastiff but, as both Sam and Lucy had pointed out to me, I didn’t have any better ideas.
“Okay, how are we going to do this?” I asked the girls.
“There are three ways we can get outside,” Tanya said. “The rear hatch, the top hatch, and your side door. Maybe you can open your door and lean out to take the two on the front of the truck.”
“What about the ones on the roof? As soon as I open my door, won’t they try to get me?”
“We’ll deal with them,” she said, stepping up onto the raised platform beneath the hatch in the ceiling. She had slung the M16 over her shoulder and was holding her Walther.
“We don’t know how many are out there,” I reminded her.
She looked at me with a determined expression on her face. “We will once I open this hatch.”
I tried desperately to think up a better way to shake the hybrids from the vehicle but my mind was coming up blank. I’d read many books and seen countless movies where I had rolled my eyes at the dumb actions of the characters. In most cases, I could see a better way for them to solve their problem.
But having been in real situations like this, I knew that sometimes the brain gets locked into a certain way of thinking and blocks out other ideas. It restricts the options available so that the mind isn’t overwhelmed into inactivity. Sometimes, you just have to act, and the survival instinct forces you into that action, even if another five minutes of thinking might have yielded a better plan of action.
My mind was now stuck on the idea of climbing out onto the exterior of the Mastiff and shooting the hybrids. It had locked onto that course of action as the best way to survive this situation and wouldn’t let me think about anything else.
I placed my fingers carefully around the handle of my door and unfastened my harness.
“Maybe you should slow down while we do this,” I told Sam.
He shook his head and gestured to the side mirror. “Can’t do that, man. They’re right behind us.”
I looked at the mirror. The horde was no more than a quarter mile behind us.
“On three,” Tanya said. “One, two…”
I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t ready yet but I would only be stalling. There was nothing else to do now but open the door and pray I was a good enough shot to take out the two hybrids before I was thrown from the vehicle—in which case the horde behind us would kill me—or ripped apart by a hybrid on the roof.
“…three.”
I pushed open the door. It was heavy, and the added wind resistance meant I had to put my shoulder behind the push. The door opened and I almost stumbled out onto the road. Bringing up the Walther, ignoring my hair blowing into my eyes, I squeezed the trigger. The hybrid closest to me staggered back, roaring in pain.
I hadn’t killed him. He bared his teeth and lunged at me. I ducked back inside the cab, pulling the door closed. The hybrid almost went over the side but he managed to get a hand on the grille attached to the door. He snarled at me.
I wound down my window, pointed the gun at his head through the grille and fired.
He fell out of sight. In the side mirror, I could see his lifeless body lying in the grass by the side of the road.
In the rear of the Mastiff, Tanya had opened the roof hatch. The rattle of machine-gun fire filled the air.
The other hybrid continued to pound on the windscreen as if unaware that his companion was dead.
I opened the door again and took a shot at him. The bullet missed entirely because he simply turned to face me and came scuttling across the front of the Mastiff like a human spider.
Before I had the chance to retreat into the cab, a pair of strong hands grabbed my jacket and pulled me toward the roof.
For a moment, I was suspended over the road, the wind beating at me mercilessly. Then I was yanked up and slammed onto the roof. My Walther went clattering across the metal roof panels and out of sight. Luckily, the Mastiff was more than ten feet wide and had a raised metal foot-high wall around the entire roof, so I knew the gun wouldn’t go over the edge.
Now on my back, I looked up to see a female hybrid with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail looking down at me with evil yellow eyes. The move she had just used on me would have made any WWE wrestler proud.
I raised my legs and kicked her away, using the soles of my boots against her chest. She stumbled back but soon regained her composure and came at me, teeth gnashing.
I tried to roll to the side, aware that if I rolled too far, I would end up on the road and as good as dead. My move wasn’t fast enough, though, and the hybrid landed on top of me, trying to bite my face. Her breath smelled meaty and I didn’t dare wonder what her last meal had consisted of.
I used both hands to hold her at bay but she was strong and heavy and driven by a virus-fueled rage. It wouldn’t be long before my strength failed and her teeth sank into my cheeks or neck.
Then a burst of M16 fire ripped into her and she fell on top of me, dead.
Pushing her away, I looked up to see Lucy crouched on the roof, M16 in her hands.
“Thanks,” I said breathlessly.
She nodded and aimed her gun over the side of the vehicle to shoot at a hybrid that was hanging on to the side grille.
Tanya, who had also climbed up onto the roof through the top hatch, was at the rear of the Mastiff using the butt of her gun to knock another hybrid from the rear of the vehicle.
Before I had a chance to fully appreciate how well Lucy and Tanya were doing, my legs were grabbed from behind and I was pulled down over the windscreen and onto the hood of the Mastiff.
I had forgotten about the hybrid there.
The fall knocked the wind out of me as I landed painfully on my side. The sound of the engine was loud here and I could smell diesel fumes as I fought to suck air into my lungs.
The hybrid stood above me, looking down at his prey. Then he dropped toward me, snarling.
I rolled to the side. I knew I was at the edge of the hood but I had no choice. If I didn’t move, I was dead.
My body rolled over the side of the Mastiff and the next thing I knew, I was hitting the road. My momentum rolled me forward and past the edge of the road into the grass. The world tumbled in my vision and I was aware of pain shooting across my shoulders and hips. I heard the engine of the Mastiff, which had been so loud in my ear a moment ago, recede as the vehicle continued along the road, leaving me behind.